johnnymo63

I was at Good Guys in Indy today and saw a 62 Nova convertible with an LT1 in it. I had to look twice. No opti!!! It had a conventional distributor in it. I didn't know this was possible. Do you machine the intake to accept the dist. and put in a cam to drive it?
No owner in sight to ask. Have any of you guys seen this before?

STL94LT1

Quite a few L98 guys are running LT1 intakes with a conventional distributor. No need to change the camshaft, the stock one will turn the distrib.

eschoendorff

I think he's asking if an LT1 will turn a conventional distributor....

aboatguy

There's a hole in the block where the distributor sits in a normal SBC. The hole is used for the oil pump drive (looks like the bottom half of a distributer)

So I'd say the lt1 could be made to use a rear distributor.


If you look at the back of the engine you will see the oil pump drive.

STL94LT1

Yes, it would.

I should have seperated my last answer.

johnnymo63

So if this is the case, why don't more people go to this if their opti goes bad? Seems like a $200 fix to a $500 problem.

5abivt

I had to run a dist in my LT4 388 solid roller to spin it to 8k rpm. FUel rails had to be cut and an fitting welded to get around the dist. Stock ecu was also removed and a Gen 7 dfi runs everything with all the stock guages and display working perfect

5abivt

I believe right now nobody has spent the time to figure a way to get the distributor to communicate with the stock ecm.

Aggravated4life

You may have seen the Miniram as well...the miniram is designed for the earlier sbc with rear conventional distributor,but the kit can cost you 1200 bucks for everything,or more!!
www.tpis.com sells it.

It looks ALOT like the LT1 intake,but has water jackets in the intake manifold while the actual LT1 does not,to use with older sbc head design.

I also wondered in the past if someone with a LT1,installing a distributor,if it would be beneficial over the opti.Would be cool if someone sold a wire harness kit/oil drive parts to hook it up and made it work.Would be a far cheaper cost alternative in the long run.

BlackC6LS3

I plan on putting an LT1 motor in a TPI car and using a distributor and the TPI wiring. Anyone ever do this?

5abivt

Thats really interesting. No reason why not !!

rodj

The engine doesn't know what is controlling the spark / fuel so I figure if you used all the TPI parts
(ECM , wiring ,dist ) it would work.
Have to do the same intake mod to mount the dist as mentioned above..

aboatguy

Because the OPTI is not that big of a problem, and its a 2K fix for a $200 problem (at a minimum for an install in an LT1 equipt C4 you'll need an Intake, wiring harness conversion and an aftermarket engine management system.) Now if your installing an LT1 into an older car and going carbed that's an easier prospect. GM performance parts has a block off plate for the opti mounting hole and a carb conversion intake for the LT1.

The opti is difficult to work on due to location; however, most optis provide tens of thousands of miles of trouble free operation (some have more than a 100K on them.)

It seems that when someone has LT1 problems, a bunch of people start to post "check the opti" even for problems that could never be ignition related. Some people have problems with their OPTIs however, if the opti is as bad as its reputation how come most 92-96 LTX corvettes/F-bodies and B-bodies have soooo many miles on them.

The standard SBC rear distributer is not bullet proof nor water proof; yet it seems no one complains when it needs a cap and rotor, gets wet due to a pressure washing and fails, or needs replacement due to wear.

The real problem is that the rear mounted SBC distributor's location makes a distributor change a simple and quick task, and in comparison the opti is an afternoon of wrenching.

Time to pressure wash my engine bay.

Mike